vice president biden in charge of the negotiations. the next thing the vice president was in lithuania, moscow, scandinavian countries. so i think there was a whole tennor was one of addressing problems that had been raised and criticisms that had been raised rather than laying out a course of action. he did involve himself in the budget fight by saying 55,000 teachers, he want would stand by their-- that cutting head start was unacceptable and pell grantses. but i just didn't get a sense of this is the course that i, as the leader, am going to chart for you. >> lehrer: do you see that, would you make the same criticism. >> yeah, i think in general i would say in the last, since the republicanses assumed majority status in the house, i think that has been the posture, the rope a dope posture from the white house. too positive-- passive posture on a range of fronts. he would say cautious posture and maybe politically he would say we're going to let the republicans hang themselves on aggressive spending but it is not a period where the p